'What's in the water?': Event on Polk County watershed report draws hundreds
Jennifer Terry and a group of scientists spent the last few years focused on Central Iowa's two main rivers, the Des Moines and Raccoon.
Terry is the project manager behind the Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment.
The report got its first official presentation Monday at Drake University with the help of the Harkin Institute.
"What's in the water?" Terry said as she opened the event. "How many times have you heard that question around here?"
There were plenty of questions and facts that got attention Thursday night.
A few were related to nitrate, a known pollutant and health hazard.
High levels in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers led to a lawn-watering ban.
One of the scientists says average levels since 1988 and on are 6 milligrams per liter.
"If you go back to the beginning of the turn of the century, it's always less than 1 milligram per liter, so there's been a big increase in the average nitrate concentration from settlement time," said Dr. Jerald Schnoor of the University of Iowa.
Schnoor also said that of 2,000 rivers tested nationally, Iowa's are in the top 1% for high nitrate levels.
"You might ask where is all the nitrate coming from?" he said. "It's a good question."
The report concludes 80 percent is from agricultural land.
The event wasn't all about nitrates and drinking water. There was talk on fish kills, rain fall changes, pesticides, erosion, swimming and fishing.
Dr. Claire Hruby of Drake University said there is regular monitoring for E. coli at Iowa beaches, but not rivers.
"Our river systems are not monitored weekly, so it's a little bit wild west," Hruby said.
Polk County released a summary of the report, "Currents of Change," and its findings in early July.
The entire presentation can be found on the Harkin Institute's YouTube channel.
